


A mission of great import

by Amyler



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Gen, Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 21:34:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,177
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28164075
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amyler/pseuds/Amyler
Summary: 3.4 spoilers. After the events with the warriors of darkness, Amy undertakes a critical task with Thancred and Urianger at her side.
Kudos: 4





	A mission of great import

The Warrior of Light awoke hours before the dawn. Under the stars she took her time to rise, stretching out a knot in her shoulder left over after Titan had managed to pummel her. She made sure to move quietly, more out of general habit than any necessity. Their target wasn’t going to hear them from here, but she still moved with a gentleness that would surprise those who only knew the tall Roegadyn as a warrior who stood tall on any battlefield. When she was confident she had her own gear in order, Amy attention turned to her companions.

Thancred was sitting on watch, his back facing their camp while he kept a focused gaze upon the horizon. Knowing that he was attentive enough to have heard her shuffling about, Amy briefly rested a hand on his shoulder before turning to wake the other member of their camp. Even sleeping, Urianger looked somewhat stiff, his posture rigid and breathing measured. A gentle pat on the cheek caused his eyes to snap open, and he seemed to pull himself from the grip of a night-terror, his eyes wildly looking about before locking onto Amy’s.

“Time for us to rise, Urianger. We’ve got a bit of time before we set off after our quarry.” Her voice was low and measured, ignoring his brief distress in an act of small, familial mercy. Urianger nodded from the ground, and began working his way to his feet to join the others.

Clearing away their overnight camp was an almost instant task. Packrolls wrapped into tightly wrapped bundles, more dirt thrown over the already dark embers of their small fire, and the area looked identical to any other patch of ground in La Noscea.

Their walk to the waters edge was similarly a silent and introspective affair. Amy had a good estimation of what thoughts occupied each of her companions mind, and her own focus was split between their mental state and the upcoming chance to catch her elusive quarry. She’d recruited the Scions for this task, and it had taken a surprising amount of convincing to get them on board. Perhaps not that surprising, considering how much the others had been grappling with recently, but that was all the more reason that their assistance here was so important.

As they wended their way along the shore, by unspoken agreement they fell into a marching order, with Amy taking point across the sometimes marshy terrain, Urianger in the middle, his feet aiming to land in each footprint Amy left behind, while Thancred lagged behind them both, a gap between noticable to Amy as she forded ahead.

We need this. You two even more than me. This isn’t tenable forever, and I won’t let it simmer under the surface when it would sour what we have.

Finally she spotted what she was looking for. A thick tree, its trunk sprouting forth from the water a short distance from shore, its branches shaking intermittently, more so than the limbs of other trees in the breeze.

Wawalago you beautiful madman, I shouldn’t have doubted you’d know what you were talking about. If I succeed here I’ll owe you more than I can pay.

“This is it gentlemen. Let’s set up our posts before we get started properly.” When working alone Amy could set herself up in seconds, but here she wanted to make a bit more of a production out of it. She directed the others carefully, setting up the compact stools for each of them in a loose ring facing the water-bound tree, and had them check they each had the gear they’d each need to catch their elusive quarry; a sturdy fishing line baited with fresh Northern Krill.

“Remember, the Nepto Dragon is sly and reclusive even for a legendary eel. If we scare it out of that tree and don’t catch it, it’ll be weeks before the thing settles down in another hovel for me to try and track it down. Keep your bait cast far enough from the tree to force it to swim out from the roots; if you try to reel it in while its wound up in their it’ll have enough of a hold to just snap your line and then it won’t come out while we’re still about.”

Her advice was received with blank stares, and Amy had to bite back a pained sigh. So she’d practically bullied them into coming on this fishing trip with her. They could at least pretend it was more fun than fighting with Amalj’aa cultists, or wrestling naked with an angry Morbol. 

Whatever their reservations though, the Scions could be trusted to carry out any task with diligence and care, and the two men dutifully baited their rods and cast away, settling into their chairs for a too early morning at a task neither was interested in.

Time to undertake the real job now.

“Thancred.” Amy’s kept her voice low, her eyes remaining on the tree still shaking slightly as the massive eel beneath it thrashed about as it ate some hapless prey. 

“What is it, Amy?” To most people his voice would have come off as normal, but Amy was perceptive. The man was still worn down, and he hadn’t picked up despite the weeks separating him from that painful day. At the Rising Stones he still sometimes hesitated, his mind going back to some moment or memory that haunted him.

“Tell me about Minfiia.”

That got a reaction even a stranger would spot. Urianger in his stool frozen stiff, side eyeing the warrior of light, as Thancred slowly turned his head to look at her, incredulity plain across his face.

“You got us both out here to help you catch this fish Amy, perhaps a trip down memory lane can wait a while yet?” 

Ignoring the tension in the air Amy smiled broadly in response.

“Mayhap it could Thancred, but ...” the joke died on her lips as she looked at Thancred. She wanted him to open up, to be honest here. She had to extend him that same vulnerability.

“But I thought I would have that time to learn about all the Scion’s first-hand. To trade stories over long nights and early mornings like these for many years to come. I’d found a home here. A family. One that wanted to take on the world with me, one I wanted to take on the world with.” Wind called softly, its voice joining those of the few industrious bugs awake, filling the silence Amy had left. Pre-dawn light played across waters surface.

“I won’t get that with Minfilia. But even departed, I would still have her be part of my life, Thancred. I would still know her and love her, if those who still hold her close are willing to share.”

It felt like a plea, half left unspoken. Amy yearned for Thancred to trust her, to emote. Yes, for her sake, as she had admitted. But even more so for his. For the sake of the festering pain that clouded over the man, that left him shrouded in shade under a cloudless sky.

Please, she thought, her bright eyes kept on his dark. Please let yourself.

Thancred looked away, breathing in the horizon, starlight and predawn speckling the moving surface. It felt that none among them breathed as he thought.

“I named her, you know.” His voice was soft, and his mind adrift, entirely taken in by memory.

“She was being pursued by Garlean assassins, for fear of what her father had known. I was doing what I could to protect her, though I feared that a day would come where I was not there, and they would come for her. I warned her. Advised her to adopt a new identity, to try and blend in to Ul’Dah’s masses.” Urianger was sitting forward, listening as intently as Amy was.

“She trusted me. Took my advice without hesitation. For a time, I agonized over that. Wondered how she could so willingly trust her identity, her entire being, to a near perfect stranger. It scared me, actually.” He laughed, eyes closed, leaning back slightly.

“Would she extend everyone that trust? Would she be a bird, willing landing upon the hand of the butcher? It was only years later, as I watched her found the Path of the Twelve, creating a group to help protect Eorzea, that I understood.”

Urianger nodded with Thancreds account, undoubtedly taken in by his own recollection of their former leader. The Elezen remained stiff, his gaze very obviously avoiding Thancred, who was too wrapped up in his own memories to notice.  
“She wasn’t naive, or gullible. No, Minfilia was just. She could read people, was perceptive to their emotions and intent in a way like no other soul could be. She could see the best in people from her first words with them, and read ill intent or malice without a hint visible to any other.”

Thancred sighed, then took in a long slow breath before continuing. 

“At times in my life I have struggled, Amy. Struggled to see the good in myself. I have worked with among the greatest figures of our age, and it is hard to leave ones chequered behind in that company. But Minfilia, the brightest soul I have ever known, trusted me. Without judgement or doubt.”

Thancred’s eyes were wet, and he made no attempt at hiding his emotions. Amy could only smile in response, her heart touched by the sincerity and naked love he spoke with. But her task here was not yet finished. She turned to her petrified Elezen companion.

“One life for one world. Such was the bargain, and you the coin, though it were not mine to spend. I pray that I do not speak out of turn, but it sounds, to me, that she is a woman who would happily pay that price herself, were she in the position to do so.”

Thancred didn’t react, perhaps being too wrapped up in his own thoughts to so much as hear. Urianger, however, made a huff as if he had just been punched in the stomach. He struggled to breath for a moment, made to reply, and then paused, still struggling for words.

You, too, need this. Mayhap more even than Thancred did.

“Urianger. I understand. I do. You took it upon yourself to uncover what you could, and the thread you pulled at grew longer than you could have ever expected. It was entangled, and you found yourself facing a quandary I cannot imagine the weight of. You found a way to save a world, an entire world, but you yourself lacked the tools to do it.”

Urianger nodded, staring into Amy’s eyes. His own plea and desire plain across his face. A need for acknowledgement, for an absolution of his guilt. But it was Thancred who spoke next.  
“Of course. Of course Minfilia would have agreed, without hesitation. Her greatest desire was to help, and who could deny her the chance to do that?”

The tree still rustled before them, as Urianger, for the first time, looked to his Scion compatriot.

“I do not blame you, Urianger. I do not hate you, or feel a bitterness that should leave you afraid of me as you are now. You did right by her. You helped her, and though I will miss her, I cannot resent you for paying a price that must be paid. Do not apologise for it, do not feel shame for it. You did the right thing, Urianger. I will miss Minfilia for the rest of my life. But thank you for what you did.”

The three Scions sat at waters edge with wet eyes and strained hearts. Amy began reeling in her rod as, for the first time in recent memory, Urianger spoke to Thancred, his usual verbosity kept short.

“Thank you, Thancred. I was as proud to know her as you.”

As Amy stood the other two were shaken out of the moment somewhat, looking to her with confusion.

“We’re done here, gentleman. Shall we go back?”

Thancred spoke with feigned affront.

“Done here? When your precious Nepto Dragon is still ...”

At this, Thancred finally noticed the tree had fallen still, no longer being shaken and thrashed by water sea beast had lain beneath it. Amy grinned broadly, pulling her catches head from the water, revealing the utterly exhausted Nepto Dragon, ready to be brought back to the Limsa fishing guild as a gift and donation to Wawalago.

“I hooked it right after we sat down, boys! Took some time to tire the damned thing out, but it seems your company on this mission wasn’t as necessary as I thought. Still, I appreciate it all the same! Hopefully the next one won’t require quite so early a start, but it’s nice to have such dependable fishing companions.”

Thancred laughed wryly, and even Urianger cracked a smile her. The three began their return trek, and this time, no cloud or pall hung over them.


End file.
